“It means that no matter what you write, be it a biography, an autobiography, a detective novel, or a conversation on the street, it all becomes fiction as soon as you write it down.” WritingMeanMatterLiteratureFictionNovelStreetsConversationNo Matter WhatAutobiographyBiographiesDetectivesDetective Fiction Author:Guillermo Cabrera Infante
“In one deep sense, novels are concealed autobiography. I don't mean that you are telling facts about yourself, but you are trying to find out what you really think or who you are.” ThinkingWritingTryingMeanFactsNovelWho You AreAbout YourselfAutobiographyConcealedOne Deep Author:Robert Penn Warren
“I mean, there are many other directors who are probably both more skilled and excited to adapt novels or work within certain genre conventions. I'd like to do that kind of work someday, but for better or worse I'm too drawn by my own material.” KindMeanCertainMy OwnNovelMaterialsDirectorsExcitedGenreSomedayConventions Author:Todd Solondz
“I think predictability is built into any good novel in some way - you begin reading Anna Karenina and you know pretty much what's going to happen at the end. But that doesn't mean you know what's going to happen in the middle. For me, it's that sense of what happens in the middle that's important.” ThinkingKnowsWayMeanImportantEndsHappensReadingNovelMiddleBuiltAnnaPredictability Author:Scarlett Thomas
“At the risk, then, of being shunned by some of my gloomier peers, I venture to tell you that writers work like demons, suffer greatly, and are also happy, in unmistakable ways, some of the time. If we had no knowledge of happiness, our novels wouldn't sufficiently resemble real life. Some of us are even made a little bit happy, on occasion, by the writing process itself. I mean, really, if there wasn't some sort of enjoyment to be derived, would any of us keep doing it?” IfsWayWritingMeanLittlesMadeRealSufferingBitsProcessNovelRiskLittle BitReal LifeOccasionsEnjoymentDemonPeersVentureWriting Process Author:Michael Cunningham
“Great fiction shows us not how to conduct our behavior but how to feel. Eventually, it may show us how to face our feelings and face our actions and to have new inklings about what they mean. A good novel of any year can initiate us into our own new experience.” FeelsYearsMayMeanShowsFeelingsActionFacesFictionNovelBehaviorOur ActionsNew ExperiencesInitiate Book:On Writing Source: On Writing
“If there's anything Trollope novels always take seriously, it is money - how it flows from one character to another, how it is managed, who has it, who deserves it, and what it means to a character, male or female.” IfsMeanCharacterNovelDeserveFemaleFlowMales Author:Jane Smiley
“I was born into the century in which novels lost their stories, poems their rhymes, paintings their form, and music its beauty, but that does not mean I have to like that trend or go along with it.” MeanDoeStoriesFormLostBornNovelCenturyFashionPaintingTrendsRhyme Author:Pat Conroy
“Look at Andrew Roe's The Miracle Girl from one angle and you'll see an incisive and insightful critique of America at the millennium and today, investigating where we put our faith and why. The greatest of Roe's achievements in this captivating debut is a memorable feat of intense empathy. Roe inhabits characters who are desperate to believe and reveals to us their needs and wounds and hopes, and he does so with kindness, generosity, and wisdom. This is a novel about what it means to be human, to seek connection and hope and maybe even transcendence in the world around us.” WorldNeedsBelieveHumansLooksMeanDoeCharacterTodayAmericaGirlKindnessNovelAchievementEmpathyConnectionsMiracleWoundsIntenseGenerosityMemorableDesperateInsightfulAngleTranscendenceCritiqueFeatsAndrewMillenniumDebutInvestigatingCaptivatingKindness GenerosityWhat It Means To Be Human Author:Doug Dorst
“How can we expect novelists to be moral, when their trade forces them to treat every end they meet as no more than an imperfect means to a novel?” MeanEndsForceMoralNovelTreatsTradeNovelistsImperfect Book:Pictures from an Institution: A Comedy Source: Pictures from an Institution: A Comedy